A few Michigan connections involved in a boring All-Star Saturday

AP PhotoChauncey Billups wasn't able to get it going in the three-point shootout.

I planned to do a post tonight on something vaguely Pistons or at least Michigan-related after the NBA All-Star Saturday festivities. Unfortunately, the two easiest storylines I was hoping for -- former Piston Chauncey Billups winning the Three-Point Shootout or former Michigan State star Shannon Brown winning the dunk contest -- didn't really materialize. In fact, both gave pretty poor performances.

But hey, how about Mark Aguirre judging that dunk contest? Way to represent the Pistons, Mark.

After a very entertaining Rookie-Sophomore game last night -- featuring Piston Jonas Jerebko -- the Saturday events were honestly just boring. Let's just go right down the list:

H-O-R-S-E Competition: In theory, this could be fun. But the NBA has to stop putting Kevin Durant in it -- kid can hit shots from anywhere on the court. That's fun for no one. This year, the field was Durant, Kings rookie Omri Casspi -- not exactly a household name to the casual NBA fans who tune in during All-Star Weekend -- and Rajon Rondo who let's just say is not the most charismatic player in the world.

The competition ran so long that Durant and Rondo had to go to a shoot-off so that TNT didn't risk making the other events run late. There is nothing more entertaining that watching guys shoot threes from the top of the key until one misses.

Shooting Stars: A lot of people don't like this event, but I don't mind it. It's fast-paced, light-hearted and doesn't drag on. It's fine.

And this year, they didn't make a chubby Bill Laimbeer trot out their in gym shorts and a basketball jersey, which I always thought was just mean.

The Texas team of Kenny Smith, Dirk Nowitzki and WNBA star Becky Hammon won the event, although I was pulling for former Piston and UM star Chris Webber's Sacramento team. They didn't get out of the first round though.

Skills Competition: This was actually the most entertaining event of the night -- a testament to how lame the rest of the games were. Steve Nash won it with an impressive time, but Utah's Deron Williams looked to be on track to beat him until one of his passes, which looked on target, rimmed out of a tire three times.

Three-Point Shootout: Paul Pierce won, which is insane because Paul Pierce is not a great three-point shooter. But don't tell Pierce that -- he told Cheryl Miller after winning that he thinks he's "one of the best shooters in NBA history." Sorry Paul -- I think if your team needs a three late in the game, they are going to Ray Allen 100 times out of 100 in that situation and not you.

Dunk Contest: Let's just say this up front: the dunk contest doesn't work without a guy with a good personality. I'm sure Shannon Brown, Gerald Wallace and DeMar DeRozan are all great guys. None had any kind of flair. Even the winner, Nate Robinson, who had become known for his personality in two previous dunk contest wins, didn't do anything original or even interesting. Brown and Wallace looked like they put about three minutes of time into preparing what they were going to do.

And DeRozan had clearly the best dunk of the night. He just made the same mistake Andre Iguodala did a couple years ago when he lost to Robinson -- he broke the dunk out before the Finals, got a 50, then had nothing left for the final round.

People will always watch the dunk contest, no matter how much we complain about it every year, but the NBA can do a better job of finding guys who are not only good dunkers, but showmen as well.